


Subliminal

by the_genderman



Series: My 2018 MCU Kink Bingo Fics [21]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Accidental Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Bottom Steve Rogers, Gratuitous Smut, M/M, MCU Kink Bingo, Modern Steve Rogers, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, Protectiveness, Top Bucky Barnes, brief minor peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 17:44:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16521725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_genderman/pseuds/the_genderman
Summary: Shrinkyclinks. Steve accidentally stumbles across a HYDRA cell and finds himself in a less than ideal situation with a “new friend.” Things take a turn for the weird and then, fast forward a year or so, and Steve finds himself in a very different, and much more enjoyable situation with his new friend.





	Subliminal

**Author's Note:**

> The title made more sense a major revision ago, but that version wrote itself into a corner, and had to be hacked into pieces and sewn back together with whatever random plot I found lying around.
> 
> Brief slice-of-life type ficlet where I’ve developed just enough backstory to make it happen, but not enough to explain much of what happened before and what happens after what’s shown here. Canon-divergent “post-CA:TWS” in which the Steve we meet now is the grandson of the earlier Steve who did not get the serum and did not go to war. He and Bucky were friends, but probably nothing more. Bucky was the first Captain America, and after he disappeared, the SSR set up a program which found new candidates so that the mantle of Captain America would never be empty. Sam is Captain America as of the time this story is set in, although he won’t really play much of a role in this ficlet.

The squeak of hinges in desperate need of oiling wakes Steve, jolting him to immediate consciousness. Maybe it’s the police? If he accidentally stumbled into a HYDRA cell trying to clear out before anyone found them, maybe someone else noticed, too. Someone who was smart enough to call the cops instead of wandering into the creepy not-so-abandoned machine shop like he had. Ever since Captain America and a few loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had uncovered a vast HYDRA conspiracy embedded in the government like an insidious mold a month ago, the country had been thrown into minor chaos. Everyone was seeing HYDRA agents creeping around bus stops and lurking behind elementary schools. Most of the rumors were just that. So Steve let his curiosity get the best of him and he poked his nose in.

Unfortunately for Steve, he’d found the real deal. And thus he had been tased, grabbed, searched, and ended up locked in some kind of storage closet for at least a day. There were no windows in his makeshift cell, the lights didn’t work, and anyway, HYDRA had taken his phone, wallet, ID and, annoyingly enough, his emergency asthma inhaler, so all he had to go off of was his internal clock. He had to hope it was the police showing up already, and not HYDRA deciding what they were going to do with him.

He blinks at the sudden harsh light of a powerful flashlight. Standing in the doorway is a tall figure, silent and unreadable. The flashlight sweeps over Steve and he squints, raising his hands. He’s not sure if he should try to look as un-threatening as possible, or if he should try for his best 5’4” holy terror impression.

The flashlight drops to the floor and Steve blinks. In the dim light from behind the figure with the flashlight, Steve can see the silhouette belongs to a man, tall and broad-shouldered, with an aura of something that Steve can’t quite place, but that leaves him far more afraid for his safety than from any of the HYDRA goons who threw him in this closet. The light glints off metal on the man’s wrist, and Steve can tell immediately it’s not a watch or bracelet. His wrist, hand, _arm_ , are metal. This has to be the Winter Soldier, the legendary HYDRA assassin, spoken only of in whispered ghost stories, who had featured briefly in the news reports. Just a few blurry images, a metal-armed masked man facing off against Captain America and friends. He had disappeared after the fall of the Triskelion, and no one knew where he had gone; whether HYDRA had gotten him back or if he had become just another casualty of the disaster.

Steve’s got his answer right here. If he’s being honest with himself, he’s terrified. This is how it ends. If he’s gonna die, he’s gonna die on his feet. Steve stands up and faces the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier moves silently towards Steve, stopping barely a handspan away. He reaches up with his left hand to take Steve’s chin and jaw in a steely grip. Steve’s face is tilted forcefully up to look at the Winter Soldier (not that he can see much in this darkness), and he’s sure the Soldier can feel the fear in his racing pulse even with the metal hand. Steve’s putting on a brave face, but to be this close to this assassin of legend, it’s only a mask. He swallows heavily. And then, almost as quickly as it began, it’s over. The Winter Soldier releases his grip on Steve, stumbles almost imperceptibly, and takes a couple steps back.

“Steve?”

The voice is quiet, barely audible. At first Steve thinks he must have imagined it. It’s only himself and the Winter Soldier in here, and he certainly didn’t whisper his own name into the void.

The Winter Soldier extends his flesh and bone right hand and lifts it to Steve’s face. He takes Steve’s chin in his fingers, much more gently than before. To Steve, his touch feels almost tender.

“Steve?” the Winter Soldier asks softly, unsurely. “Is that really you?”

Steve’s not sure what’s happening. HYDRA took his ID, so it makes sense that they’d know his name, but the Winter Soldier sounds so uncertain. Like he’s trying to place a face to a name, but Steve’s _sure_ they’ve never met before.

“That’s my name, yes, but I don’t think I know you?” Steve says hesitantly.

The Winter Soldier’s hand drops back and he crouches down on the balls of his feet. He looks oddly small. 

The silence passes tense between the two figures. The Winter Solider remains crouched in front of Steve, just looking up at him, watching. Steve stands unmoving (except for the full-body fear tremble he’s trying to suppress) as he tries to figure out what he’s supposed to do—what he _can_ do.

They watch, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

The Winter Soldier moves first, rising to his feet in one fluid motion.

“You’re not HYDRA,” he says simply. “You… you look like someone I know—knew.”

And with that, the Winter Soldier steps aside to allow Steve to pass him and leave the closet.

“Um,” Steve says, trying to keep a squeak out of his voice. He’s very confused now. This man looks like the Winter Soldier, has the Winter Soldier’s arm, but he isn’t the Winter Soldier? He is but he isn’t? Steve’s very confused. “Who _are_ you?”

“I don’t know,” the Winter Soldier replies, shaking his head as he turns away from Steve.

“Oh, uh, ok” Steve says falteringly. “Is HYDRA gone? And you didn’t happen to see what they did with my phone and wallet and things, did you?”

“There’s a duffel behind the front desk, it looked like personal belongings,” the Winter Soldier answers. “I had planned to take it and look over it later, see if anything came back to me. Yours might be in there. Go. Find your things and leave. Don’t tell anyone you were here and there’ll be no evidence. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Oh, ok,” Steve nods vigorously. He steps forward, passing through the threshold of the closet doorway. He turns back. “Will you—?”

“I’ll be fine. _Go_.” The intensity in the Winter Soldier’s voice is almost palpable.

With that pronouncement, Steve scoots.

\----------------------------------------------------------

A little over a year later, and Steve’s mostly managed to put his brief time as a prisoner of HYDRA behind him. According to the news, the Avengers managed to take out the last known remaining HYDRA stronghold a week ago, and Steve is feeling pretty good. He hasn’t had a single HYDRA-related nightmare in over a month, and this is very welcome news that HYDRA has finally been extirpated. Steve finishes reading the latest news article, puts his phone back to sleep, slips it in his pocket, and sips his coffee. He leans back in his chair on the patio of the little coffee shop and decides to just people-watch for a bit.

Steve’s about to get up to leave when one passerby turns suddenly to look at him and accidentally walks into a light pole. 

“Steve?” the man asks, crossing the sidewalk to the patio fence.

The man’s voice is immediately familiar. Steve hasn’t heard it in over a year, but he knows the voice. He knocks his coffee cup to the ground where it shatters. 

“Sorry,” the man—the former Winter Soldier—says and stoops to pick up the shards of pottery. “Do they charge for broken cups? I’ll pay for it.”

“I, uh, no, I don’t think they do. It happens,” Steve begins. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name,” he adds, trying to play along. People are looking at them.

“Of course, sorry, I’m Bucky,” the man formerly known as the Winter Soldier says, holding out his right hand for Steve to shake.

Steve shakes, releases his hand as quickly as is polite, and follows him along the fence to the closest garbage can. “So, what are you doing here?” Steve asks, still confused.

“Complete coincidence, actually,” Bucky says. “You wanna walk and talk for a bit?”

“Sure,” Steve shrugs, not entirely sure why he’s accepting the offer. Curiosity? Complete lack of self-preservation instinct? Probably curiosity. While he knows how dangerous the Winter Soldier was capable of being, this man, Bucky, exudes a very different air about him.

Steve slips through the patio gate, takes a spot next to Bucky, and they begin to walk.

“What do you know about the Winter Soldier?” Bucky begins slowly.

“Is that who you are?” Steve asks.

“Who I was,” Bucky answers.

“Pretty much only what came out in the news,” Steve replies with a shrug. He’s not sure where this conversation is headed, but he thinks Bucky must have a reason for starting off with this.

“So you know how old I am,” Bucky says, a statement rather than a question. He turns his head a little to the side to eye Steve.

Steve nods, looking up at Bucky.

“Well, then this may not sound quite so odd then. I knew your grandfather. I’d guess you were probably named after him, he was a Steve, too. Steven Grant,” Bucky says. Steve nods again in agreement. “And you look so much like him that, when I found you in that HYDRA cell, I thought I was hallucinating or having my memories come back all in the wrong places. I didn’t even know my own name, but I remembered Steve, remembered my best friend. And I wanted to thank you for that, because things really started coming back after that. Just little things, flashes of memories, Coney Island, baseball games, sitting on the roof talking, laughing, just being _me_. And no, please don’t say you didn’t do anything, because you did. And I never thought I’d see you again, but here we are. So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome?” Steve says, unsure of what else to say.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Steve never expected to end up here. Well, it wasn’t that he never expected to end up with a hot, naked guy in his bedroom, it was that he never expected the particular turn of events that resulted in him making fast friends with the man formerly known as the Winter Soldier, slowly falling for him, and then learning that Bucky had also fallen in love with him at the same time.

It had taken some time for Bucky to feel less self-conscious about his body, but Steve knew he had to move at his own pace. Steve had had to come to terms with his own shortcomings, once upon a time, so he knew how it could be. But come around Bucky had. And now he’s here, sitting on Steve’s bed, stripped to the skin in all his naked glory; the first time he’s agreed to bare it all in front of Steve.

Steve is quite rightly impressed. Sure, Bucky’s got a network of old scars, places where the hair will never grow back, giving him a patchy appearance, but Steve’s not so shallow as all that. Ok, so it took him a little aback when he saw the full extent, but Bucky is so much more than just his skin. Steve quickly apologized for his reaction, and Bucky quickly accepted. And now here they are, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

“So, uh, do you have any preferences? You probably do. Um. How do you prefer?” Bucky asks a little nervously.

“Well, I prepped to bottom, so unless you don’t want it like that, I want that glorious cock of yours in me,” Steve says with a grin.

“I am very much ok with that,” Bucky replies with a nod and a satisfied raise of his eyebrows.

“Good,” Steve says firmly. He stalks purposefully over to the edge of the bed. Bucky slides up the sheets, reclining back on his elbows and giving Steve room to climb onto the bed.

Steve climbs up and straddles Bucky’s legs, knee-walking up to stop at his waist. Bucky reaches over to grab the lube off the side table and passes it to Steve. Steve accepts it with a theatrical little bow and spreads his legs a little wider. He squeezes some lube out, slicks up his fingers, and begins to work himself open. He closes his eyes and moans a little louder, a little more dramatically than is completely necessary.

Bucky’s breath catches as he watches Steve at work. He lays back and his hand goes to his cock, fisting it loosely as it comes to attention. There’s a beautiful flush spreading across Steve’s face and down his neck and chest as his arousal climbs. Bucky reaches for the bedside table again, groping to find the condom, unwilling to tear his eyes off of Steve. He opens it and rolls it on, eyes still drinking in the view that is Steve. There’s so much difference between Steve and himself. Where he is tall and well-muscled, hairy, scarred, and a little hesitant, Steve is smooth-skinned, small and wiry, with more than enough sass in him for the two of them. Steve’s voice brings him back out of his reverie.

“Ready?” Steve asks, holding the lube out for Bucky.

Bucky takes the lube from Steve with a bow of his head and a flick of his eyebrows. He watches Steve watching him as he slicks himself up nice and wet. As Bucky snaps the cap of the bottle shut, Steve lowers himself down. Bucky drops the bottle and his hands go to Steve’s hips, supporting him as he breaches himself. With Bucky holding him, Steve slowly settles deeper and deeper onto Bucky’s cock. He grits his teeth and breathes through his nose as he adjusts to the stretch. It’s a bit to get used to, but _god_ does it feel good. He finally makes it all the way down and lets out a long sigh.

Bucky gives Steve just enough time to get comfortable before he bucks his hips, jolting Steve and drawing a gasp from him. Steve’s hands immediately move to Bucky’s, covering and clutching onto them.

“Too much?” Bucky asks.

“Do that again,” Steve orders.

Bucky obliges. 

Steve raises himself up, slides back down Bucky’s cock with a moan, then lurches forward, dropping his hands to Bucky’s chest. Bucky is a little concerned at first, but it soon becomes clear that Steve’s just fine and knows exactly what he’s doing. Bucky’s eyes flutter shut, his back arches involuntarily, and he moans as Steve’s fingers find his nipples. 

“Is that good?” Steve asks, his voice low and a little breathless as he strokes and pinches and tugs, feeling Bucky’s nipples pebble up under his touch.

Bucky nods vigorously, unable to form coherent words at the moment. He rolls his hips again and Steve quickly finds a rhythm and takes over, fucking himself on Bucky’s cock, panting and moaning. He’s quite the showman. Bucky opens one eye to steal a glance down at Steve’s cock, flushed dark pink, bouncing as he moves, and leaking precome. Steve’s sex-flush has crept all the way down to his pubic hair, and Bucky thinks it’s a _really_ good look on him. 

Steve shifts a bit, grabs Bucky’s right hand, and brings it up to his chest, pressing his palm over the back of Bucky’s hand. He moves Bucky’s hand until his fingers are right over his nipple. It’s erect, sensitive and ready for whatever Bucky wants to do. Bucky takes the hint and gives it a solid pinch. Steve moans loudly and clenches down on Bucky’s cock as he takes him deep again. A couple more pinches, a few more thrusts of Bucky’s hips, and Steve’s almost screaming as he orgasms, come arcing onto Bucky’s stomach and chest. 

The sight of Steve straddling him, flushed and spent, panting and blissed out, and the hot squeeze of Steve around his cock is enough to push Bucky over. His hips stutter involuntarily as he comes, jolting Steve, who gasps and moans through the aftershocks.

Steve catches his breath, reaches down to keep the condom from sliding off with him, and slowly pulls off. He grunts as Bucky’s cock slips free and he collapses onto his back next to Bucky. He stretches his legs out, gives a dramatic satisfied sigh, and cuddles up under Bucky’s arm.

Bucky gives Steve a quick kiss on the forehead before sitting up. “I’ll be back in a moment, but right now I think I should get this condom off before my dick gets prune skin,” he says with a chuckle.

“Ew,” Steve laughs and waves him off. “Yeah, take care of that, then get back here and cuddle me, ok?”

“Gladly,” Bucky replies.


End file.
